by: Victoria James
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 23, 2019
Publisher: Entangled Publishing ~ Amara
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She’s got ground rules aplenty...
Emily Birmingham has had it up to here with men.
Growing up with an overbearing father and then her brother inherits everything she’s worked her whole life to build. Now she’s living in her grandmother's dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere Canada, jobless, and dealing with the most annoyingly sexy contractor on the planet. Exactly when did her life become an anti-Hallmark movie?
Cooper Merrick learned the hard way that love is definitely not worth the risk. He’s happy running the family contracting business alongside his well-meaning but overly-opinionated brothers...happy enough until polished and perfect Emily enters his world. Nothing prepared him for the ways she turns his life upside down and reaches the parts of himself he’s closed off from the world.
But when he finally gets up the nerve to ask Emily out, she says her next date will need to come with a written contract and some very particular ground rules. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but why does he find himself wanting to sign on the dotted line?
She opened the door, the cool air making her shudder, and walked around the side, her heels sinking into the soft gravel. He was pulling things out of the cab of his truck. “You should go back inside, Emily. It’s cold and damp out here. No point in both of us getting chilled,” he said, not really looking at her, just chucking tools onto the ground. She’d never changed a tire in her life or even seen anyone change one.
“That’s okay. I’ll keep you company,” she said, trying to sound chipper as the wind blew her hair off her face, making a mockery of the perfect beach waves she’d managed. Her mouth went dry as he began unbuttoning his shirt. She shouldn’t stare. Unfortunately she just couldn’t make herself turn away.
He shrugged out of his button-down shirt and dropped it into the cab of his truck, not paying her any notice, which was good because she didn’t really want to look away. Sure, she’d seen him around the house in T-shirts, but this wasn’t the same. This was a fitted white undershirt that was plastered to his body, highlighting all of his muscles as they rippled. If she’d had a lawn chair and popcorn she might have pulled up and watched the show. That was juvenile of her. “Can I do anything?” she asked, knowing she actually had no way of helping.
He was now under the truck and hoisting it up. Her breath caught as his shirt rode up, revealing what she’d suspected were taut, perhaps six-pack abs. Not that it mattered. That was vain and silly. Very silly. But she still didn’t turn away.
“Nope,” came the muffled reply.
She ignored him. He stood abruptly and hauled the tire off the back of the truck, and she tried not to look like she’d been watching him like a fangirl as he paused and made eye contact with her.
“I’m sorry,” he said flatly.
Emotion and adrenaline clogged her throat as she stared at the man in front of her. His hair was as disheveled as hers. He was dirty and hard and frustrated, and he was the best thing she’d ever seen in her entire life because he was real. He was staring at her as though he’d just committed a crime, as though it hurt him, because their date hadn’t gone like it was supposed to. He was concerned for her. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was because Cooper was a man of so many gifts, so much heartache, so much integrity. Maybe that was why she didn’t just stand there on the sidelines and accept that as her fate in life.
Life wasn’t fair, and he was living proof of that, but the winners kept going, they kept pushing through the pain and the heartache, they pushed to see if they could get to the other side. That’s what she wanted. She wanted him. She wanted to join him, to find that other side, that new life. Maybe he got that, because instead of going back to fixing the tire, he let it fall to the ground, and as he approached, he dropped the tool he was holding and kept walking toward her with an expression that made it impossible to breathe. He stood in front of her, maybe an inch from making contact, and then he raised his hands and cupped each side of her face, and she was pretty sure that her entire life she had never experienced something so intoxicating and overwhelming as having Cooper’s hands on hers, his gaze on her, telling her things without words. He was speaking to her heart, and no one had ever done that. “I’m sorry tonight didn’t go as planned. I wanted to do something special for you,” he said, his voice low and gruff, his gaze going from her eyes to her mouth.
“This…right here…you, this is all I want,” she whispered. She didn’t have a minute to second-guess being so candid and so vulnerable, because he lowered his mouth and took hers in a way that made it perfectly clear he wanted her just as much. His mouth was firm and intense and everything she dreamed of. Her hands roamed over his hard chest, and he kept one hand on her face while the other pulled her into him, and the feel of his hard body made her whimper against his mouth.
He backed her against the truck, and she finally experienced what it was like to lose control. She had never imagined how all-encompassing, how consuming it could be to be with someone. But she knew it wasn’t just someone, just anyone, because no one had ever managed to evoke complete abandon like he did. It was like she was herself, but without inhibitions, like she was looking at herself from outside.
This woman, the one in Cooper’s arms, the one kissing a man on the side of the road against a truck, wasn’t sensible Emily. This woman was the real Emily.
“That’s okay. I’ll keep you company,” she said, trying to sound chipper as the wind blew her hair off her face, making a mockery of the perfect beach waves she’d managed. Her mouth went dry as he began unbuttoning his shirt. She shouldn’t stare. Unfortunately she just couldn’t make herself turn away.
He shrugged out of his button-down shirt and dropped it into the cab of his truck, not paying her any notice, which was good because she didn’t really want to look away. Sure, she’d seen him around the house in T-shirts, but this wasn’t the same. This was a fitted white undershirt that was plastered to his body, highlighting all of his muscles as they rippled. If she’d had a lawn chair and popcorn she might have pulled up and watched the show. That was juvenile of her. “Can I do anything?” she asked, knowing she actually had no way of helping.
He was now under the truck and hoisting it up. Her breath caught as his shirt rode up, revealing what she’d suspected were taut, perhaps six-pack abs. Not that it mattered. That was vain and silly. Very silly. But she still didn’t turn away.
“Nope,” came the muffled reply.
She ignored him. He stood abruptly and hauled the tire off the back of the truck, and she tried not to look like she’d been watching him like a fangirl as he paused and made eye contact with her.
“I’m sorry,” he said flatly.
Emotion and adrenaline clogged her throat as she stared at the man in front of her. His hair was as disheveled as hers. He was dirty and hard and frustrated, and he was the best thing she’d ever seen in her entire life because he was real. He was staring at her as though he’d just committed a crime, as though it hurt him, because their date hadn’t gone like it was supposed to. He was concerned for her. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was because Cooper was a man of so many gifts, so much heartache, so much integrity. Maybe that was why she didn’t just stand there on the sidelines and accept that as her fate in life.
Life wasn’t fair, and he was living proof of that, but the winners kept going, they kept pushing through the pain and the heartache, they pushed to see if they could get to the other side. That’s what she wanted. She wanted him. She wanted to join him, to find that other side, that new life. Maybe he got that, because instead of going back to fixing the tire, he let it fall to the ground, and as he approached, he dropped the tool he was holding and kept walking toward her with an expression that made it impossible to breathe. He stood in front of her, maybe an inch from making contact, and then he raised his hands and cupped each side of her face, and she was pretty sure that her entire life she had never experienced something so intoxicating and overwhelming as having Cooper’s hands on hers, his gaze on her, telling her things without words. He was speaking to her heart, and no one had ever done that. “I’m sorry tonight didn’t go as planned. I wanted to do something special for you,” he said, his voice low and gruff, his gaze going from her eyes to her mouth.
“This…right here…you, this is all I want,” she whispered. She didn’t have a minute to second-guess being so candid and so vulnerable, because he lowered his mouth and took hers in a way that made it perfectly clear he wanted her just as much. His mouth was firm and intense and everything she dreamed of. Her hands roamed over his hard chest, and he kept one hand on her face while the other pulled her into him, and the feel of his hard body made her whimper against his mouth.
He backed her against the truck, and she finally experienced what it was like to lose control. She had never imagined how all-encompassing, how consuming it could be to be with someone. But she knew it wasn’t just someone, just anyone, because no one had ever managed to evoke complete abandon like he did. It was like she was herself, but without inhibitions, like she was looking at herself from outside.
This woman, the one in Cooper’s arms, the one kissing a man on the side of the road against a truck, wasn’t sensible Emily. This woman was the real Emily.
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